Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt2 The Sixties

Peter Noone with Elvis August 65

 

If I recall, it is featured in the booklet of the FTD F&J CD.

 

Frankie and Elvis

 

90% of the time I prefer original mixes. Even if there's something wonky about the original mix (eg Rubber Soul) I still prefer it because invariably something gets lost in terms of "feel" when there's a remix. But to my ears the original mixes of Harum Scarum and Frankie and Johnny are flat out unlistenable. The vocal/instrumental balance makes it sound as if Elvis is singing in the studio while the band is out in the parking lot. The music is rendered completely flaccid. The Double Features remixes are certainly not perfect, but they correct this singular, major flaw that ruins the original mixes. They are at least listenable and competent. So for me, they are the only way to fly for these two albums.

 

The two most important male singers in the history of popular music, whether you admire them or not.

 

I apparently have the same ears as you when it comes to these recordings. I hear it exactly the same way. The original mix on both albums are truly dreadful sounding to my ears. I have never heard Elvis's voice sound so flat and unappealing on an entire album, especially the latter one.

 

wait, where's Bing?

 

I didn't see him. He was probably getting the drinks

 

Bing was a dear friend of my Aunt's and I respect a lot of what he accomplished. I still manage some property in Southern California that my Aunt and Bing bought together in a joint business venture many years ago. He certainly was a huge influence on the record industry at the time, but I just do not think he had the same impact on other artists and the overall popular culture that Elvis and Frank have had for so many decades, but he is certainly a very iconic artist and still has the greatest selling single in the world with his iconic version of White Christmas.

 

Frankie And Johnny
Written By :
Alex Gottlieb, Ben Weisman & Fred Karger

Recorded :
Radio Recorders, Hollywood, May 12-15, 1965 : May 15, 1965. take 6


The song was inspired by one or more actual murders. One of these took place in an apartment building located at 212 Targee Street in St. Louis, Missouri, at 2:00 on the morning of October 15, 1899. Frankie Baker (1876 – 1952),[1] a 22-year-old woman, shot her 17-year-old lover Allen (also known as "Albert") Britt in the abdomen. Britt had just returned from a cakewalk at a local dance hall, where he and another woman, Nelly Bly (also known as "Alice Pryor" and no relation to the pioneering reporter who adopted the pseudonym Nellie Bly), had won a prize in a slow-dancing contest. Britt died of his wounds four days later at the City Hospital.[2][3][4] On trial, Baker claimed that Britt had attacked her with a knife and that she acted in self-defense; she was acquitted and died in a Portland, Oregon, mental institution in 1952.[citation needed]

In 1899, popular St Louis balladeer Bill Dooley composed "Frankie Killed Allen" shortly after the Baker murder case.[5] The first published version of the music to "Frankie and Johnny" appeared in 1904, credited to and copyrighted by Hughie Cannon, the composer of "Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey"; the piece, a variant version of whose melody is sung today, was titled "He Done Me Wrong" and subtitled "Death of Bill Bailey."[6]

The song has also been linked to Frances "Frankie" Stewart Silver, convicted in 1832 of murdering her husband Charles Silver in Burke County, North Carolina. Unlike Frankie Baker, Silver was executed

Another variant of the melody, with words and music credited to Frank and Bert Leighton, appeared in 1908 under the title "Bill You Done Me Wrong;" this song was republished in 1912 as "Frankie and Johnny,"
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I actually like this track.
I Like the way it starts with little bit of a New Orleans jazz kind of feel. I personally think Elvis sounds engaged in the vocal and that it comes across well. The song has a lot of history and I have added a little just to give anyone that doesn't know a little insight into it.
I think the modulations work really well in this version and Elvis puts it over really well.
So for me this album gets off to a fine start.

 

Come Along
Written By :
David Hess

Recorded :
Radio Recorders, Hollywood, May 12-15, 1965: May 13, 1965. take 1
This song also has a bit of New Orleans swing to it. I also think this is a good track and it bounces along nicely. It seems to have an obvious connection to the movie, but I think in context it also works as a song removed from the idea of the movie.

 

I like Frankie And Johnny. I do not care for banjos, nor do I like the style of Come Along.

 

I first heard Frankie & Johnny on Dylan's wonderful Good As I Been To You album (which contains two other songs recorded/performed by Elvis: Tomorrow Night and Froggie Went A-Courtin'. Dylan also recorded Money Honey and Anyway You Want Me around the same time, but I digress). After being so used to Dylan's acoustic version, hearing Elvis' rendition on Command Performances was a shock. I really enjoy it now, but it took a bit of time to grow on me. The song really kicks into gear with the "Well, Frankie looked into the barroom" part, and I quite like the stuttering ending, which is somewhat unusual for an Elvis track. All of that having been said, this is one of those rare Elvis songs where I have a clear preference for another singer's rendition: Mississippi John Hurt's stunning 1928 performance.



Come Along is a joy to hear. Quite a few Elvis soundtracks feature a peppy, bouncy track as song #2 (GI Blues, Blue Hawaii, Kissin' Cousins, Girl Happy, etc.), and Frankie & Johnny fits into that tradition. Between the upbeat numbers on Frankie & Johnny and King Creole, you can put together a great little "Elvis sings Dixieland" comp.

 

I was thinking along the same lines. I think they were definitely trying to duplicate that great brassy New Orleans sound that they achieved previously on King Creole, but they were missing two key ingredients in the production and songwriting of this album that they had on the earlier album; Leiber & Stoller.

 

The same thing happened with "Paradise, Hawaiian Style." They tried to duplicate the success, formula and charm of "Blue Hawaii," but the material wasn't there, the script was terrible, and Elvis was nowhere nearly as engaging vocally.

 

My first exposure to Frankie and Johnny was Johnny Cash's great rendition from 1959. Cash rewrites it to omit the murder but his version still has a lot more drama than Elvis'. This is a classic American folk song, so it's one case where we can't blame the material for how the Elvis version turns out... it's down to arrangement and performance. Elvis' version has a busy, bloated, unwieldy arrangement, and Elvis' vocal seems more histrionic than dramatic, like he has no emotional investment in the song. Singing is kind of like acting in that the singer needs to make us believe that he's feeling the emotions in the song, and in this case Elvis' "acting" seems wooden and insincere to me. Sadly, this is still one of the better tracks on the record.

 

My lady was casually listening along with me to the two songs this morning. She likes Elvis a lot, but is nowhere near the obsessive fan that I am. In fact, when she was watching the Elvis 68 Special on NBC Sunday with me, she said as much as she enjoyed some of the performers on the show, none of them could much the voice or charisma of Elvis on the original special. Her comment on Come Along was something like, " He does not sound like he is really feeling it, like he was just phoning it in." Her comment on Frankie And Johnny was "Now, Elvis sounds like he actually is getting into that song. His voice shows excitement and energy." I pretty much hear it the same way as both you and my lady. I am not digging the banjo very much either on Come Along.

 

As Martin Mull would say "fiddle and banjo crap".

 

That describes my household as well.

 

Gotta say I like a bit of Bluegrass fiddle and banjo, but I'm not sure it is something for Elvis.

 

Yes I like a little David Grissman and Anger & Higbie myself. But they are more mandolin and violin than fiddle and banjo though.

 

It strikes me that (with a lyrical rewrite to omit the references to gambling) "Come Along" would be an excellent song for Barney the Purple Dinosaur to cover. A sing-songy melody and an invocation to join in on the fun... it's totally in his wheelhouse. There have been earlier examples of Elvis tracks like this that I could find some enjoyment in, but not this one. I think the reason is that I agree with Steve's wife... it just sounds like Elvis is not into it at all, and is just going through the motions.

 

A music critic (I forget who) described Elvis's mid-60s recordings as a wasteland with only a few highlights such as "the sassy 'Frankie and Johnny'." Maybe, but it could have used a bit more sass. Still, it's one of only two memorable songs on this album.

 

Having just watched the movie for the first time, that Elvis’s character is presented as a gambling addict struck me as a bit odd. I know it’s supposed to be funny that he’s always begging his girlfriend and everyone else for money to cover his losses, but, even without thinking about the Colonel’s later gambling problems, it just didn’t strike me as funny, and it’s kind of an odd, unsympathetic trait for the hero of an Elvis movie to have.